Beautiful Eyes

The eyes are the most scrutinized part of the face. Now scientists have identified an eye feature that may figure greatly into judgments of attractiveness: the dark circle outlining the iris (the colored part of the eye), known as the limbal ring. Darren Peshek, a graduate student in the cognitive sciences department at the University of California, Irvine, and collaborators showed 45 volunteers 80 pairs of faces. Each set was identical except for the eyes, which had been digitally manipulated so that all were light-colored but one pair had prominent limbal rings and the other had none. Both men and women preferred the faces of people whose eyes had a clearly visible limbal ring. Since the limbal ring becomes less distinct with age and ill health, the scientists speculate that it's an evolutionary signal of youth and vitality. It's not clear whether the study participants favored darker rings, thicker rings, or both, Peshek adds—and future research will tell whether the outlines around dark eyes, which are less apparent, have the same effect.